More than 3,000 people joined the Jesuits in Vietnam for the close of a yearlong celebration of the arrival of the first Jesuits in the country 400 years ago. The mass was held at the main Jesuit compound in Thu Duc, a suburb of Ho Chi Minh City.
At Kanyintabin village, a community nestled on the bank of the vast Pyamalaw River, Jesuit Scholastic Cyril Nay Myo Htet, better known as Phocho, sat down with a group of farmers on a hot December afternoon, a mug of sweetened instant coffee in his hand. This was the time of the year when they harvested the yields of their toil and sweat.
Jesuit Refugee Service Australia has opened a new drop-in centre to address a lack of asylum seeker services in Western Sydney. The project is the result of a needs assessment undertaken by JRS in 2014, which found that the region is home to New South Wales’ second-largest group of asylum seekers arriving by boat and living on bridging visas.
A multitude from the remotest edges of Myanmar converged on Yangon to celebrate 500 years of Christianity in the country. According to Fr Chinnappan Amalraj SJ, Delegate for the Jesuit Myanmar Mission, they occupied all the empty spaces in and around the churches, halls, even Hindu temples.
Fr Joseph Aik Maung SJ, who was ordained in May, led one group of the Kachins who came from the northernmost dioceses. Fr Aik Maung is one of only three Myanmar priests in the Society of Jesus.
Australian Provincial Fr Brian McCoy SJ and former Provincial Fr Steve Curtin SJ presented Pope Francis with a special gift of Sevenhill wine at a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Restoration of the Society. Fr McCoy and Fr Curtin were in Rome for the Tertian Directors Meeting, which coincided with the anniversary celebration on August 7. They were joined by another Australian Jesuit, Fr Minh-Uoc Pham.
On August 23, 2014, family, relatives, friends, and Jesuits gathered at the Ateneo de Manila University’s Church of the Gesu to celebrate the diaconal ordination of nine Jesuits, one from the Vietnamese Province (Joseph Pham Din Cu), five from the Korean Province (Seokbae Andrew An, Hyungsik Francis Jo, Do-hyun Paul Kim, Min Kim, Jaesang Jason Bonaventura Lee), and five from the Philippine Province (Ambrosio Faustino Flores, Alvin Dagooc Laput, Mark Peter Ledesma Lopez, Arnel Te Ong, Henry Cogal Ponce).
The Society of Jesus in Korea celebrates five new Jesuit priests. Fathers Andrew Sung-gyoon Lee, Simon Mon-hoi Kim, Benedict On-dohk Kang, Thomas Min Han and Igwan Su-yun Park were ordained to the priesthood on July 2 at Myeong-dong Cathedral in Seoul, South Korea. More than 1,500 people participated in the ordination mass concelebrated by Most Rev Peter Chung Soon-taek OCD, Auxiliary Bishop of Seoul, and 80 priests.
The Society of Jesus has a new Thai Jesuit priest. Francis Xavier Manasan Wongvarn (Yoht) SJ was ordained to the priesthood on May 24, 2014 by Bishop Silvio Siripong Charatsri DD of Chanthaburi at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Bang Saen, Chonburi province.
The church, which is a Jesuit parish and has around 150 parishioners, was filled to overflowing by the 800 family, friends, fellow Jesuits, priests and Religious who gathered to witness the momentous occasion.
The recent ordinations of Titus Tin Maung SJ and Joseph Aik Maung SJ were moments of joy and unity for the hard pressed ethnic communities that claim them as their own. They were also cause for celebration for the Society of Jesus as the two new priests are only the second and third Jesuit priests from Myanmar.
The Jesuits in the Philippines have responded to the call of Father Adolfo Nicolás, Superior-General of the Society of Jesus, to all Jesuit communities to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Restoration of the Society in 2014 “with humble and sincere gratitude to the Lord, with a desire to learn from our history, and as an occasion for spiritual and apostolic renewal”.